# “The line of life and light which runs through the whole Old Testament” by John Owen

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2021/06/17/beginning-with-moses-and-all-the-prophets-by-john-owen/
- Published: 2021-06-17T12:00:07-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“It is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
He declared unto His disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,’(**
Luke 24:27**).

It is therefore manifest that Moses, and the Prophets, and all the Scriptures, do
give testimony unto Him and His glory.

This is the line of life and light which runs through the whole Old Testament, without
the conduct whereof we can understand nothing aright therein: and the neglect hereof
is that which makes many as blind in reading the books of it as are the Jews,—the
veil being upon their minds. (**2 Cor. 4:14-16**)

It is faith alone, discovering the glory of Christ, that can remove that veil of
darkness which covers the minds of men in reading the Old Testament, as the apostle
declares, (**2 Cor. 3:14–16**). I shall, therefore, consider briefly some of those
ways and means whereby the glory of Christ was represented unto believers under 
the Old Testament.

It was represented in the institution of _the beautiful worship of the law_, with
all the means of it. Herein have they the advantage above all the splendid ceremonies
that men can invent in the outward worship of God; they were designed and framed
in divine wisdom to represent the glory of Christ, in His person and His office.

This nothing of human invention can do, or once pretend unto. Men cannot create 
mysteries, nor can give unto anything natural in itself a mystical signification.

But so it was in the old divine institutions.

What were the tabernacle and temple?

What was the holy place with the utensils of it?

What was the oracle, the ark, the cherubim, the mercy-seat, placed therein?

What was the high priest in all his vestments and administrations?

What were the sacrifices and annual sprinkling of blood in the most holy place?

What was the whole system of their religious worship?

Were they anything but representations of Christ in the glory of His person and 
His office?

They were a shadow, and the body represented by that shadow was Christ.

If any would see how the Lord Christ was in particular foresignified and represented
in them, he may peruse our exposition on the 9th chapter of the Epistle unto the
Hebrews, where it is handled so at large as that I shall not here again insist upon
it.

The sum is, ‘Moses was faithful in all the house of God, for a testimony of those
things which were to be spoken afterward,’ (**Heb. 3:5**).

All that Moses did in the erection of the tabernacle, and the institution of all
its services, was but to give an antecedent testimony by way of representation, 
unto the things of Christ that were afterward to be revealed.

And that also was the substance of the ministry of the prophets, (**1 Pet. 1:11-
12**). The dark apprehensions of the glory of Christ, which by these means they 
obtained, were the life of the church of old.

_Promises, prophecies, predictions_, concerning His person, His coming, His office,
His kingdom, and His glory in them all, with the wisdom, grace, and love of God 
to the church in Him, are the line of life, as was said, which runs through all 
the writings of the Old Testament, and takes up a great portion of them.

Those were the things which He expounded unto His disciples out of Moses and all
the Prophets. Concerning these things He appealed to the Scriptures against all 
his adversaries: ‘Search the Scriptures; for they are they which testily of Me.’(**
John 5:39**)

And if we find them not, if we discern them not therein, it is because a veil of
blindness is over our minds.

Nor can we read, study, or meditate on the writings of the Old Testament unto any
advantage, unless we design to find out and behold the glory of Christ, declared
and represented in them.

For want hereof they are a sealed book to many unto this day.”

–John Owen, “[Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851513921?tag=toletaupanre-20),”
[_The Works of John Owen, Volume 1: The Glory of Christ_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851513921?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1684/2000), 1: 348-351.

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